A BIB file is a text document created by a LaTeX program such as MiKTeX or TeXworks. It contains a list of references formatted using BibTeX formatting. BIB files allow bibliographies to be searched and published using standard commands and are often used in combination with LaTeX (.TEX) documents.

BIB file open in TeXworks 0.6 BibTeX files may include bibliographies for books, articles, research papers, tech reports, etc. A sample BIB file entry may be formatted as follows: @BOOK{citation key, AUTHOR = "Author name", TITLE = "Title of book", PUBLISHER = {Name of publisher}, ADDRESS = {Location published}      } BibTeX files can be viewed and managed on multiple computer systems, but the formatting is standard across all platforms.